Well, that’s two things I’ve learned! :smack:
<squints>
Do I need new glasses, or…?
Around 2000, as a generally fastidious person, I was stunned my word processor dictionary didn’t have a very common word. In frustration at it constantly underlining it in red, I added it to the custom dictionary.
I’d say it was at least two years later that I realized ‘desicion’ wasn’t such a common word after all. Man, even Chrome thinks it’s wrong! 
Oh Pee Aich Tee Aich Aye verse Oh Pee Tee Aich Aye
There is an extra H that is often overlooked, even when squinting.
Pointsietta. Apparently, dictionary makers don’t like that first T and put the second I in a different place. (Poinsettia)
That was VERY common when I lived in Minnesota for a couple years. The same folks would also pronounce “vague” as “vag” (rhymes with “bag”).
Sometimes I find out that I’ve been pronouncing (in my head if not out loud) a word wrong for many years, usually because I’ve read it many times but not heard it used in conversation. When I was a kid I would read books about math, and they’d mention the mathematician Euler which I assumed was pronounced “yooler”. When I got to college and he actually came up in a course, it turned out his name is pronounced “oiler.” I still read it as Yooler in my head.
HA! That explains it. My mom pronounces it that way too - and I’m willing to bet she learned it from her South Dakotan mother or Iowan father.
This is embarrassing but honest to god true. I spelled my very own middle name wrong for probably 25 years. I always spelled it “Lynn” but I finally saw my birth certificate about 10 or 15 years ago and noticed it was spelled “Lyn.” YUP. :smack::eek:
Let’s just say my pronounciation of “Pequod” cost me on Jeopardy, having read it but not ever hearing it spoken.
No, I don’t want to talk about it.
You mean “jewellery”.
Actually, you don’t, but many flag “jewellery” as incorrect spelling and pronunciation, when it’s actually a non-American variant. Just a bit of trivia I’d throw in, apropos of nothing.
Me too. It was spellcheck that caused me to realise I had been wrong all this time. I think both look acceptable, though, and I expect most people don’t realise it’s wrong when they read it.
For me, incongruous as “incogruous” and intrinsic as “intristic”.
When I first read the OP, I thought of this story and took note that it asked for misspellings; I came back and forgot that it was spellings and not pronounciations being sought. Sorry.
discrepancy. I’d been saying and spelling it disrepancy.
ETA: I think your story is interesting enough that it’s okay that it’s not 100% on topic.
And how do you pronounce it? I can’t find the answer.
As the owner of a print shop, I frequently see “Wheel Barrel” when people are getting raffle tickets printed for a “Wheel Barrow of Cheer” (wheel barrow filled with bottles of liquor).
mischievous
I had one of my 7th graders come up to me after I assigned “mischievious” as a spelling word. This girl, who was brilliant in all areas, told me she thinks I misspelled it. I said…no, that’s how it is spelled.
I googled it and found out she was right and I commended her to all my classes and told them they are lucky to learn something I didn’t learn until I was 30.
Best kid I ever had.
I was reading a Worst of Craigslist site a while back. They had a tag for all the people selling “Chester drawers.”
I’ll give you a nickle for eveytime I mispell nickel.
nickel just looks wrong. Unless corrected, I usually screw up and spell nickle. Spell checkers don’t flag it because it is a word. Just not a word for the change in your pocket.
Background. I was in college—still have nightmares over that one!
Most people don’t pronounce it correctly, either. IT really should be without a hard P - “off-tha-maw-la-jist.” Similarly, “diphthong” is really supposed to be “Diff-thong.”